A senior apartment complex under construction at 345 E. Commonwealth, at Lawrence, seems to have no compunction about completely blocking the sidewalk on the north side of a major street in Fullerton for the past year. Like other dense, multistory residential complexes approved by the city and constructed in recent years, the finished project will extend itself so close to the sidewalk that it apparently can’t be constructed without covering it completely while it is being built. In the meantime, anyone walking along Commonwealth is evidently just supposed to cross the busy thoroughfare, even though there is no traffic signal or marked crosswalk at this intersection.

The City used to have signboards at least alerting pedestrians that they needed to avoid this area. It has been months since these were in place. I’ve lived in the neighborhood 10 years, and am close to the project but far enough away that I don’t see it directly when I leave or arrive. Because of this, I constantly start out walking my normal way of 10 years, suddenly re-remembering that it won’t work, and having to back track 5 minutes. Sigh. Other cities handle this by putting concrete berms in the roadway, effectively adding a new protected pedestrian lane in the street. I would like to see this as a new best practice.

That’s the fault of our development (formerly planning) department. Our downtown area is supremely unfriendly to pedestrians. So is the engineering department with the timing of crossing lights–minimum times allowed.